Vim

Introduction

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It’s an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems.

Install Vim using Homebrew:

brew install vim

Basic Commands

Opening and Exiting

• Open Vim:

  vim #or vi
  

• Open a file:

  vim filename
  

• Exit Vim:

  • :q (if no changes were made)
  • :q! (to exit without saving changes)
  • :wq (to save changes and exit)
  • ZZ (to save and quit)

Navigation

• Move cursor:
  • h (left), j (down), k (up), l (right)
• Go to start of the file:
  • gg
• Go to end of the file:
  • G
• Go to line number (e.g., line 5):
  • :5

Editing

• Insert mode:
  • i (before cursor), I (start of line), a (after cursor), A (end of line)
• Delete character:
  • x (under cursor), X (before cursor)
• Delete entire line:
  • dd
• Undo and redo:
  • u (undo), Ctrl-r (redo)
• Copy (yank) and paste:
  • yy (copy line), p (paste after cursor), P (paste before cursor)

Search and Replace

• Search for a pattern:
  • /pattern (then n for next, N for previous)
• Replace:
  • :%s/old/new/g (replace all occurrences of ‘old’ with ‘new’)
  • :%s/old/new/gc (with confirmation)

Visual Mode

• Enter visual mode:
  • v (character mode), V (line mode), Ctrl-v (block mode)
• Commands in visual mode (like copy, delete) are applied to the selected text.

Windows and Tabs

• Split window:
  • :split (horizontal), :vsplit (vertical)
• Navigate windows:
  • Ctrl-w followed by navigation keys (h, j, k, l)
• Open new tab:
  • :tabnew
• Navigate tabs:
  • gt (next tab), gT (previous tab)

Advanced Features

• Command mode for complex commands
• Customization through .vimrc
• Extensive plugin system
• Integration with many tools